The Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity (CHPHE) is excited to welcome Dr. David G. Zelaya as a faculty member of our center. Dr. Zelaya joins us from the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS) in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Brown University School of Public Health, where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Interim Director of the Doctoral Program in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences. He will maintain his appointment at CAAS while bringing his interdisciplinary expertise to CHPHE.

Dr. Zelaya’s research centers on health disparities and health equity, with a focus on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and sexual and gender minority communities. His work uses intersectionality and minority stress frameworks to examine links between HIV risk, mental health, resilience, and alcohol use. As Principal Investigator of a NIH-NIAAA-funded K23 grant, he is currently developing a behavioral health intervention to reduce hazardous alcohol use among Latinx queer individuals by addressing intersectional discrimination.

In addition to his research, Dr. Zelaya is deeply committed to culturally competent clinical practice, particularly for historically underserved communities such as Spanish-speaking Latinx individuals and LGBTQ+ populations. His academic and clinical background includes training at Harvard Medical School's Cambridge Hospital and research affiliations with both Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Zelaya is actively engaged in national service and advocacy. He serves on the Leadership Council of the National Latinx Psychological Association, chairs the APA’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, and is chair-elect of the Steering Committee for the Hispanic/Latino Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. His work has earned multiple teaching and social justice awards and has been published in leading journals in his field.

At Brown, Dr. Zelaya also teaches the popular course Introduction to Health Disparities, contributing to the education of the next generation of public health leaders.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Zelaya join the CHPHE community and look forward to the expertise, passion, and collaborative energy he will bring to our center.